The Missoula Woman’s Club purchased these corner lots for $10 in 1909, hoping to build a clubhouse. The club eventually built on the University of Montana campus, and in 1922, Kenneth Keith Ross and wife Gladys (Simerson) built this classic American Foursquare style home. The style name refers to its boxy yet practical design. Most Foursquares are cube-shaped with a hipped roof and a floorplan comprised of four, roughly square rooms on each floor arranged around a central hall. Kenneth was vice president of the Montana Logging Company and son of Kenneth Forbes Ross, general manager of Anaconda Company’s Bonner logging operations. The Rosses moved to California in 1925 and rented the home to the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, one of the oldest women’s fraternal organizations in the United States. About fifteen female college students shared rooms, studied, and entertained here with supervision from house mother Laura Corbley and later Barbara (Hayes) Higgins, widow of Missoula mayor Francis Higgins. Major Frank Milburn and wife Amanda (Bamberger) rented the home in 1928. Frank commanded the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps battalion and coached sports at the University of Montana until 1931.
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